The numbers had stood for more than a generation as a touchstone, out there on the distant horizon of man`s physical limits:
Twenty-nine feet, two and one-half inches.
That is how far Bob Beamon had gone when he long-jumped over the moon a year before men landed on it.
Twenty-nine feet, two and one-half inches.
In the thin air of 7,400-foot-high Mexico City, in the Olympic long jump final on Oct. 18, 1968, Beamon had been seemingly extraterrestrial. He had broken the existing world record, then only three years old, by nearly two feet. Beamon`s record, 29-2 1/2, would become the oldest in track and field.
For the next 14 years, no man came within a foot of Beamon`s mark, which always bore an ”A”-its scarlet letter-in the record books because it was achieved with the help of high altitude. Only in 1982, when a 23-year-old Carl Lewis jumped 28-9, did it seem a person could go to greater lengths.
Over the next nine years, as Lewis inched closer and won 65 straight competitions and two Olympic gold medals and two world titles in the long jump, his quest to surpass Beamon became a media obsession.
And then, on the night Lewis finally leaped farther than Beamon, the title of world record-holder in the long jump would belong not to him but to U.S. teammate Mike Powell, who jumped 29 feet 4 1/2 inches Friday to win the World Championships.
”I am living a fantasy,” Powell said.
That someone jumped so far in this meet seemed almost a logical end result to the greatest night of long jumping in history. That that someone was Powell, 27, of West Covina, Calif., was utterly illogical and incomprehensible-although no more so than Lewis` having three jumps better than 29 feet and finishing second. The whole thing was, appropriately, about as astounding as Beamon`s world record had been 23 years ago.
”If Bob hadn`t jumped that far in 1968, this wouldn`t be such a big deal right now,” Powell said.
The anticipation someone might jump farther, which has lasted 23 years, ended Friday before a crowd of 60,000 at Japan`s National Stadium. From the minute Lewis opened with a jump of 28-5 3/4, his longest since the 1988 Olympics, it was apparent Beamon`s record might be in jeopardy.
”We had such great jumpers in those days, I thought the record could conceivably not last through the (Olympic) competition that day,” Beamon said Friday from Miami. ”I knew it was inevitable someone would break it, but, like everyone else, I assumed it would be Carl Lewis.”
On his third of six jumps, with the tailwind slightly stronger than the 4.4 m.p.h. allowable for record purposes, Lewis reached 28-11 3/4. It was then his best ever and the third best of all time under any conditions, trailing only Beamon`s record and a 29-1 by Robert Emmiyan of the Soviet Union at altitude in 1987.
On the next jump, Lewis achieved what he had so long strived for, with a jump of 29-2 3/4. That the wind was again over the allowable deprived him of the world record.
But Lewis, who had set a world record of 9.86 seconds while winning the 100 meters Sunday, still had two jumps remaining on a runway that is lightning-fast, and his third straight world title seemed a virtual certainty. Powell, after all, never had jumped farther than 28-5 before Friday, and his first jump of this competition was a laughable 25-9 1/4.
”I always said I could break the world record with the perfect situation-a perfect track, a big meet, and me being behind,” Powell said.
”But when he jumped 29-2 3/4, I didn`t think to myself, `I`ve got to break the world record.` I just thought, `Carl is in first place, I`ve got to beat him.` ”
Powell, ahead of Lewis in the jumping order, did that with the 29-4 1/2 on his fifth jump, with an allowable tailwind of only .6 m.p.h. That turned out to be the easy part for Powell, whose only previous victory of note had come in a made-for-TV slam dunk contest, although he had won a silver medal in the 1988 Olympics.
”I thought he was going to beat me,” Powell said, ”because I have been conditioned so long to seeing him come from behind to win.”
It had happened barely two months ago at the U.S. Championships, where Lewis` final jump beat Powell by three-fourths of an inch. Powell had lost 15 straight times to Lewis, who came here unbeaten outdoors since July 17, 1980 and unbeaten overall since a loss to Larry Myricks at Madison Square Garden on Feb. 27, 1981.
”I was hoping and praying he wouldn`t do it again, but deep down inside I thought he was going to jump 29-6,” Powell said.
On his fifth jump, with a slight headwind, Lewis reached 29-1 1/4. Powell, his concentration gone, fouled his final attempt, leaving him only to wait and watch.
”My heart was beating very quickly,” Powell said. ”I started feeling a little faint. You can imagine-I was just trying to let breaking the world record in the long jump sink in at the same time I was thinking about Lewis coming down the runway trying to beat it. It was a difficult moment for me.” It was actually 5 minutes 31 seconds by Powell`s count. He measured the time from when Lewis first took the runway for his last jump until the moment its distance, 29-0, flashed on the scoreboard.
Then Powell started running madly through the long jump area, stopping to hug the Japanese man who was judging fouls.
”I was looking for someone to share it with, and he got in the way,”
Powell said. From Lewis, he got a polite pat on the shoulder.
”He had one jump, and I had the greatest series of jumps of all time, but he just did it,” Lewis said. ”It was the greatest jump of his life, and he may never do it again.”
Lewis had jumps of 28-5 3/4, foul, 28-11 3/4, 29-2 3/4, 29-1 1/4 and 29-0. Powell had two fouls and only two jumps better than 28 feet-a 28 1/4 and the 29-4 1/2. Myricks was third at 27-7 1/4, giving the U.S. its second medal sweep of these championships.
”I feel great because everyone said Carl would be the one to do it, and no one gave me any credit,” Powell said. ”Not to say, `In your face`
. . . but, `In your face.` ”
Even defiant, Powell remained realistic. He knows he was ranked No. 1 in the world in the long jump last year only because Lewis competed in the event just once. He knows Lewis, world record or not, is the greatest long jumper of all time, with seven of the 10 top marks in history. He knows that, at 30, Lewis is running and jumping better than ever.
”You don`t want to push Carl,” said Leroy Burrell. ”He hits back pretty hard. There will probably be a knockout in the near future.”
Burrell knows. He broke Lewis` world record in the 100 and held it for the nine weeks until Lewis regained it here.
”I`m hoping he lets me keep this record for a little while,” Powell said.
Twenty-three years may be a little too much to ask. It is enough that these numbers, 29 feet, 4 1/2 inches, are Mike Powell`s benchmark for his generation.
